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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SERIES

THE LANCET Vol 358 August 11, 2001 483
A broad base of medical and scientific knowledge is needed
if medicine is to maintain its identity as a discipline founded
on scientific knowledge. However, interpretive action must
also be included in medical knowledge. In my first article,
1
I
investigated the nature of clinical knowledge in medicine,
exposed some of the shortcomings of quantitative research
methods, and briefly introduced qualitative methods as an
approach for improved understanding. Here, I shall discuss
how scientific quality can be maintained when qualitative
research methods are applied. I present some overall
standards, describe specific challenges met when the
medical researcher uses qualitative research methods, and
subsequently propose guidelines for qualitative inquiry in
medical research. I do not intend to provide comprehensive
guidance for the inexperienced qualitative researcher, who
must be prepared to acquire basic skills of qualitative
research from the relevant literature. Some of the specific
terms that I use are presented in panel 1.
Standards
Qualitative research methods involve the systematic
collection, organisation, and interpretation of textual
material derived from talk or observation. It is used in the
exploration of meanings of social phenomena as
experienced by individuals themselves, in their natural
context.
25
Qualitative research is still regarded with
scepticism by the medical community, accused of its
subjective nature and the absence of facts. Although the
adequacy of guidelines has been vigorously debated within
this cross-disciplinary field,
6,7
scientific standards, criteria,
and checklists do exist.
3,811
However, as Chapple and
Rogers
12
point out, medical researchers often encounter
difficulties when they try to apply guidelines designed by
social scientists, which deal with issues important in their
own discipline, but which are not necessarily generically
valid as scientific standards.
Hamberg and colleagues,
13
for example, claim that the
established criteria for scientific rigour in quantitative
research cannot be applied to qualitative studies. Referring
to Lincoln and Guba,
2
they suggest alternative criteria:
credibility, dependability, confirmability, and trans-
Lancet 2001; 358: 48388
Section for General Practice, Department of Public Health and
Primary Health Care, University of Bergen, Ulriksdal 8C, N-5009
Bergen, Norway; and Department of General Practice and Research
Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (Prof K Malterud MD)
(e-mail: kirsti.malterud@isf.uib.no)
ferability. They admit that these criteria correspond with
traditional ones in some ways, comparing credibility with
internal validity, confirmability with objectivity, and
transferability with generalisability.
Mays and Pope,
7
however, maintain that qualitative
research can be assessed with reference to the same broad
criteria as quantitative research, albeit used in a different
way. Referring to Hammersley,
14
they suggest that validity
and relevance are essential. Neither of these criteria are
straightforward to assess though, and each requires
judgments to be made. To improve validity, Mays and
Pope
7
suggest procedures and principles such as
triangulation, respondent validation, clear detailing of
methods of data collection and analysis, reflexivity,
attention to negative cases, and fair dealing. Relevance can
be increased by the use of detailed reports and sampling
techniques. The importance of clinical relevance has also
been emphasised by Giacomini and Cook.
15
I believe that qualitative research methods are founded
on an understanding of research as a systematic and
reflective process for development of knowledge that can
somehow be contested and shared, implying ambitions of
transferability beyond the study setting. Drawing on these
assumptions, the researcher must be prepared to use
strategies for: questioning findings and interpretations,
instead of taking them for granted; assessing their internal
and external validity, instead of judging them obvious or
universal; thinking about the effect of context and bias,
without believing that knowledge is untouched by the
human mind; and displaying and discussing the processes
of analysis, instead of believing that manuals grant
trustworthyness. Agreeing with Hammersley,
14
and
Giacomini and Cook,
15
I believe relevance and validity are
essential standards, but think of reflexivity as an equally
important measure, which should be added to the criteria.
Specific challenges
Although there are many similarities between qualitative
and quantitative research methods, some procedures are
very different, because of the different nature and
assumptions of the data and questions to be answered. The
effect of an investigator on a study, the principles and
consequences of sampling, and the process of organisation
and interpretation during analysis, all affect research, and
are closely related to different aspects of validity (panel 2).
Reflexivity
A researchers background and position will affect what
they choose to investigate, the angle of investigation, the
Qualitative research: standards, challenges, and guidelines
Kirsti Malterud
Qualitative research series
Qualitative research methods could help us to improve our understanding of medicine. Rather than thinking of
qualitative and quantitative strategies as incompatible, they should be seen as complementary. Although procedures
for textual interpretation differ from those of statistical analysis, because of the different type of data used and
questions to be answered, the underlying principles are much the same. In this article I propose relevance, validity,
and reflexivity as overall standards for qualitative inquiry. I will discuss the specific challenges in relation to reflexivity,
transferability, and shared assumptions of interpretation, which are met by medical researchers who do this type of
research, and I will propose guidelines for qualitative inquiry.
Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
methods judged most adequate for this purpose, the
findings considered most appropriate, and the framing and
communication of conclusions. Contemporary theory of
knowledge acknowledges the effect of a researchers
position and perspectives, and disputes the belief of a
neutral observer.
16
Haraway
17
claims that the perspective of
the observer is always limited and determines what can be
seen. This notion applies even in laboratory science.
18
Hence, in qualitative (and maybe also in quantitative)
inquiry, the question is neither whether the researcher
affects the process nor whether such an effect can be
prevented. This methodological point has been turned into
a commitment to reflexivity. The illusion of denying the
human touch is countered by establishing an agenda for
assessment of subjectivity. Objectivity, redefined by
Haraway,
17
means to recognise that knowledge is partial
and situated, and to account adequately for the effects of
the positioned researcher. During all steps of the research
process, the effect of the researcher should be assessed, and,
later on, shared. Adequate accounts of these effects should
be presented in the publication, as the frame of discussions
of limitations and strengths of the study, and transferability
of findings.
19
Bias, in the sense of undesirable or hidden
skewness, is thus accounted for, though not eliminated.
Subjectivity arises when the effect of the researcher is
ignored.
Dependent on positions and perspectives, different
researchers might therefore access different, although
equally valid, representations of the situation that is
studied. In qualitative research, these different ways of
approaching the same subject result in an increased
understanding of complex phenomena, not in a failure of
reliability. Multiple researchers might strengthen the design
of a studynot for the purpose of consensus or identical
readings, but to supplement and contest each others
statements. The single researcher will have to establish
other strategies for broad and critical reading. Validation by
consensus or repeatability is seldom adequate in qualitative
research.
The investigator always enters a field of research with
certain opinions about what it is all about.
20
Reflexivity
starts by identifying preconceptions brought into the
project by the researcher, representing previous personal
and professional experiences, prestudy beliefs about how
things are and what is to be investigated, motivation and
qualifications for exploration of the field, and perspectives
and theoretical foundations related to education and
interests. Miller,
21
for instance, writes about the
inquisitiveness he felt towards his colleagues capacity to
combine efficiency and a biopsychosocial orientation,
whereas Gardner and Chapple
22
introduce Gardners
distress as a general practitioner trying to relate to a patient
with angina who impeded referral for 6 years.
22
In
qualitative study, researchers commonly claim that they
develop hypotheses, they do not test them. In a scientific
culture accustomed to specific procedures for hypothesis
testing, such claims are useful for rhetorical purposes, to
prevent expectations about identical procedures applied to
qualitative material. The researcher should not deny that
hypotheses exist. However, the qualitative researchers task
is to explain, and maybe question, the hypotheses as
ingredients of the preconceptions and as reflections,
23
rather
than applying procedures for testing them.
Preconceptions are not the same as bias, unless the
researcher fails to mention them. If reflexivity is thoroughly
maintained, personal issues can be valuable sources for
relevant and specific research. However, the investigator
should take care not to confuse knowledge intuitively
present in advance, embedded in preconceptions, with
knowledge emerging from inquiry of systematically
obtained material. This situation can be avoided by
declaration of beliefs before the start of the study.
Reflexivity can also be maintained by looking at the data, or
its interpretation, for competing conclusions. In a study, in
which we asked patients to keep a diary, Stensland and
myself
24
suggest strategies for obtaining metapositions as a
way of improving reflexivity, whereas Miller
21
recommends
that data be taped and transcribed, therefore allowing
others not involved in the study to audit them. Based on a
review of 29 publications in which qualitative methods were
applied, Hoddinott and Pill
25
concluded that important
contextual details were often missing, implying that critical
appraisal of the reports was hampered.
Transferability
The importance of sampling is closely related to validity.
Internal validity asks whether the study investigates what it
is meant to, whereas external validity asks in what contexts
the findings can be applied. The nature and extent of the
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SERIES
484 THE LANCET Vol 358 August 11, 2001
Panel 1: Terms used in qualitative research
Term Metaphor Description
Reflexivity The knowers mirror An attitude of attending systematically to the context of knowledge construction,
especially to the effect of the researcher, at every step of the research process
Preconceptions The researchers Previous personal and professional experiences, prestudy beliefs about how things
backpack are and what is to be investigated, motivation and qualifications for exploration of
the field, and perspectives and theoretical foundations related to education and
interests
Theoretical frame The analysts reading Theories, models, and notions applied for interpretation of the material and for
of reference glasses understanding a specific situation
Metapositions The participating Strategies for creating adequate distance from a study setting that you are
observers sidetrack personally involved in
Transferability External validity The range and limitations for application of the study findings, beyond the context
in which the study was done
Panel 2: Factors that affect research
Reflexivity Share preconceptions
Establish metapositions
Transferability Adequate and sufficiently varied sample
Consider whom and what the findings
concern
Interpretation Describe theoretical frame of reference
and analysis Transparent, systematic procedure
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For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
data will ascertain which conclusions can be drawn about
what. The aim of research is to produce information that
can be shared and applied beyond the study setting. No
study, irrespective of the method used, can provide findings
that are universally transferable. The study design should
show a thorough consideration of what an adequate degree
of transferability would be, in view of the assumptions of
the research question, and present a relevant sampling
strategy. Sampling strategies might seem fundamentally
different for qualitative and quantitative inquiry. The key to
understanding how these different approaches still
accommodate scientific quality is to move beyond
procedures and to keep the principles of the research in
mind.
Purposeful or theoretical sampling are commonly done
to obtain qualitative material.
26
Previous experience and
theoretical frameworks will indicate where to go for
resourcesie, Skelton and colleagues
27
designed a study to
investigate the heterogeneity of practices and of a wide
range of practitioners, and Stensland and I
24
adapted our
design to investigate patients with longstanding symptoms
without clinical findings, representing varying duration of
illness and symptom presentation.
24
Sampling is usually
done in a stepwise way, including more data from one
group or another dependent on what extra material is
needed to answer the research question effectively. A
discussion about who and what the findings actually relate
to is a key component of external validation in a qualitative
study.
23,28
The procedures described are fundamentally different
from those used to deal with prevalences, distributions, or
numerical differences, in which large representative or
random samples, allowing for calculations of probability
with subsequent inference to a defined population, are
required. In qualitative inquiry, the aim with respect to
external validity is to ascertain whether or not the study
hypothesis or results can be applied in other settings.
Presentation of contextual background material, such as
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SERIES
THE LANCET Vol 358 August 11, 2001 485
Panel 3: Guidelines for authors and reviewers of qualitative studies
Aim
Is the research question a relevant issue?
Is the aim sufficiently focused, and stated clearly?
Does the title of the article give a clear account of the aim?
Reflexivity
Are the researcher's motives, background, perspectives, and preliminary hypotheses presented, and is the effect of these issues
sufficiently dealt with?
Method and design
Are qualitative research methods suitable for exploration of the research question?
Has the best method been chosen with respect to the research question?
Data collection and sampling
Is the strategy for data collection clearly stated (usually purposive or theoretical, usually not random or representative)?
Are the reasons for this choice stated?
Has the best approach been chosen, in view of the research question?
Are the consequences of the chosen strategy discussed and compared with other options?
Are the characteristics of the sample presented in enough depth to understand the study site and context?
Theoretical framework
Are the perspectives and ideas used for data interpretation presented?
Is the framework adequate, in view of the aim of the study?
Does the author account for the role given to the theoretical framework during analysis?
Analysis
Are the principles and procedures for data organisation and analysis fully described, allowing the reader to understand what happened
to the raw material to arrive at the results?
Were the various categories identified from theory or preconceptions in advance, or were they developed from the data?
Which principles were followed to organise the presentation of the findings?
Are strategies used to validate results presented, such as cross-checks for rivalling explanations, member checks, or triangulation.
If such strategies are not described in this section, they should appear as validity discussions later in the report.
Findings
Are the findings relevant with respect to the aim of the study?
Do they provide new insight?
Is the presentation of the findings well organised and best suited to ensure that findings are drawn from systematic analysis of
material, rather than from preconceptions?
Are quotes used adequately to support and enrich the researcher's synopsis of the patterns identified by systematic analysis?
Discussion
Are questions about internal validity (what the study is actually about), external validity (to what other settings the findings or notions
can be applied), and reflexivity (the effects of the researcher on processes, interpretations, findings, and conclusions) addressed?
Has the design been scrutinised?
Are the shortcomings accounted for and discussed, without denying the responsibility of choices taken?
Have the findings been compared with appropriate theoretical and empirical references?
Are a few clear consequences of the study proposed?
Presentation
Is the report easy to understand and clearly contextualised?
Is it possible to distinguish between the voices of the informants and those of the researcher?
References
Are important and specific sources in the field covered, and have they been appropriately presented and applied in the text?
Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved
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demographics and study setting, is necessary if the reader is
to be able to ascertain for which situations the findings
might provide valid information. The pursuit of diversity
and contradictions in interpretive analysis of textual
material is not logically compatible with the standardisation
assumptions underlying probability statistics. Additionally,
the findings are not supposed to be valid for population
groups at large. Random sampling is therefore rarely a
relevant tool for validity in these studies
Good qualitative research does not exaggerate the extent
of the material. During analysis the researchers should have
a thorough knowledge of the study material, so that they are
aware of the content of the data and what they mean, and
so that they are able to ascertain what in the material is
relevant when trying to answer the research question.
Computer programs are useful for storing, ordering, and
retrieving information, but they cannot do the analysis
itself. Additionally, a large amount of material does not
actually guarantee transferability, and might result in a
superficial analysis, since the researchers are not able to test
reflexivity and look at counterhypotheses. The transcripts
from 15 patients and their four doctors, therefore, might be
more than sufficient.
22
The nature of the research question
and the material, combined with the intention of external
validity, will determine the correct number of participants
for a study. One individual, as in a case study,
29
might be
sufficient dependent on the topic and scope of the
investigation.
21,23,30
The findings from a qualitative study are
not thought of as facts that are applicable to the population
at large, but rather as descriptions, notions, or theories
applicable within a specified setting.
Interpretation and analysis
A thorough, well prepared, and well documented analysis is
what distinguishes scientific approach from superficial
conjecture (panel 3). The researchers task is to organise,
compare, and validate alternative interpretations. Only
when the researcher can identify the systematic procedure
that has been followed in this process, can it be shared with
others.
31
Declaring that qualitative analysis was done, or
stating that categories emerged when the material had been
read by one or more persons, is not sufficient to explain
how and why patterns were noticed.
Qualitative data represent large amounts of information,
and analysis implies abstraction and some degree of
generalisation. Components from the individual
informants history and expressions are used to gain
knowledge applicable to others. Analysis of qualitative data
involves decontextualisation and recontextualisation.
32
Decontextualisation allows parts of the subject matter to be
lifted out and investigated more closely, together with other
elements across the material that tells about similar issues.
Recontextualisation will make sure that the patterns still
agree with the context from which they were collected, and
is important to prevent reductionism and to maintain the
connections between the field and the informants accounts
of reality.
The processes of systematic analysis of qualitative
data vary from project to project, dependent on the
research question, material, and choice of analytical
style.
3
Miller and Crabtree
33
present three styles of analysis,
according to the degree of predetermined or theoretically
founded categories for interpretation. With the
immersion/crystallisation (intuitive) analysis style, the
researcher organises data by examining the text thoroughly
and then crystallising out the most important aspects.
21
With the editing (data-based) analysis style, the researcher
identifies units in the text, forming the basis for data-
developed categories, which are used to reorganise the text
so that its meaning can be clearly seen.
28
With the template
(theory-based) analysis style (not very frequently applied in
medical research), the text is organised according to pre-
existing theoretical or logical categories, to provide new
descriptions of previously known phenomena. A researcher
should always reveal the style of analysis used.
Interpretation is an integral part of qualitative inquiry.
The qualitative researcher might aim for induction, in the
sense of development of theory from data. However,
knowledge never emerges from data alone, but from the
relation between empirical substance and theoretical
models and notions.
33
The theoretical framework can be
equated with the reading glasses worn by the researcher
when she or he asks questions about the material. Sharing
the type and role of framework is essential to maintain
communicative validity.
5
A frequent shortcoming in report
writing is to omit information about whether the presented
categories represent empirical findings or if they were
identified in advance.
Neglect of the theoretical considerations does not
enhance the scientific quality of any study. Yet, the medical
researcher is not supposed to become a social scientist, even
when doing qualitative inquiry. Different degrees of
theoretical thoroughness are relevant for different purposes.
The medical researcher is advised to draw on theory from
other disciplines, yet to maintain the ambition of
constructing medical knowledge. Investigators should be
encouraged to declare that their readings or interpretations
have been supported, for instance, by models about self
efficacy,
26
health belief,
22
or proinflammatory cytokines,
28
without being expected to permeate these thoroughly.
However, the task of transforming theory from other
disciplines so that it is applicable to medicine will require
some in depth research, as exemplified by Nessa,
30
who has
developed a method for transcription of consultations from
pragmatics and textlinguistics.
Researchers who claim that they approach their material
inductively, without applying any theory for analysis, fail to
realise that their stance is unavoidably affected by theory.
This notion is particularly true for those working in
medicine, where the role of the theoretical framework is
seldom explicitly spelled out. Failure to acknowledge the
effect of theory might be a major threat to objectivity, since
notions and models used in interpretation of data are
always derived from a theory of some sort. Clarification and
declaration of the standpoints by a researcher, instead of
denial or hiding of the frame of reference, will enhance
intersubjectivity, in quantitative as well as qualitative
inquiry.
A medical researcher might find the task of condensing
their research to fit the limits of a journal article, without
compromising quality, difficult. To overcome this dilemma,
investigators, referees, and editors need to work together.
Because a range of procedures can be applied in qualitative
analysis, a transparent description of the path from data to
findings is necessary to convey what was done to the reader.
Clarification of the role of different data sources is an
important part of this description.
21,24,28
To indicate that a
computer program was used for analysis is just as
insufficient as saying that SPSS was applied, without stating
the type of statistics involved. Furthermore, a researcher
cannot simply say that the material was coded for typical
patterns, resulting in some categories; the reader needs to
know the principles and choices underlying pattern
recognition and category foundation. The balance between
flexibility and rigidity is a demanding challenge in creative
qualitative analysis. Yet, reference to a previous, well
described procedure can satisfy the reader and save
precious words in a journal article. Unfortunately, word
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486 THE LANCET Vol 358 August 11, 2001
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limits in medical journals might restrain development and
dissemination of innovative or complex qualitative research
methods.
Two basic methods of data analysis are commonly
referred to in the literature. Grounded theory, based on the
theory of social interactionism, is used to develop social
issues and theories grounded in qualitative data. Strauss
and Corbin
35
provide specific procedures for analysis,
including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.
Their constant comparative method can be applied to
approach a core category and a storyline as the main
outcomes of analysis. Giorgis analysis,
36
based on
phenomenological philosophy, and modified by myself,
31
is
suited for development of descriptions and notions related
to human experience.
24,28
Giorgi recommends a four-step
analysis procedure: getting a total impression, identifying
meaning units, abstracting the contents of individual
meaning units, and summarising their importance.
Analysis might also be presented as a narrative.
21,30,37
An
investigator often considers many factors before answering
the research question, and the reader should be aware of
them all. However, the more intuitively the analysis
procedure is accomplished, the harder it is to account for
what has been done. The beginner is therefore advised to
follow a path that has been trodden by others, even though
the more artistic potentials of analysis might then be traded
off for a more mechanical, but transparent, approach. The
experienced researcher, however, might move more freely
in the material without losing hold of the process that is to
be accounted for.
23
Qualitative and quantitative methods
When qualitative and quantitative approaches are
combined, the methods are often applied in sequential
order. Semistructured interviews or observational data
might, for example, be used to explore hypotheses or
variables when planning a large epidemiological study,
resulting in enhanced sensitivity and accuracy of survey
questions and statistical strategy. In such instances,
qualitative studies might be thought of as precursors of
real science. However, qualitative studies can also be
added to quantitative ones, to gain a better understanding
of the meaning and implications of the findings. More
creative combinations are seen in triangulation.
3
The idea
of triangulation originated from a craft used by land
surveyors, who increase the validity of a map by
incorporating measures from different angles. Multiple and
diverse observations can enrich the description of a
phenomenonie, an elephant looks very different when
seen from above or below. Someone reading a report might
gain a better understanding of what goes on in a medical
consultation if data from various sources, such as doctors
and patients,
22
have been combined. The aim of
triangulation is to increase the understanding of complex
phenomena, not criteria-based validation, in which
agreement among different sources confirms validity.
Quantification of phenomena or categories can be done
to gain an overview of qualitative material, but the
application of such numbers should be done with caution.
Quasistatistical analysis of textual material, also termed
content analysis, has gained some popularity, and computer
programs are available to count the occurrence of specific
words or utterings in a text. However, the scientific logic of
statistics and transferability is far from accomplished in a
non-representative sample in which questions were not
asked in a standardised way to all participants. We do not
know to whom the findings can be transferred, and we do
not know the potential answers from informants who just
did not mention the issue. Prevalences, distributions, and
differences cannot be inferred from this kind of material.
Correspondingly, the search for meaning and experience in
responses constructed by the researcher in advance, is a
risky business.
Accordingly, the principles of meta-analysis should be
thoroughly reconsidered when qualitative and quantitative
studies are analysed together. Complete integration is not a
realistic objective. In the context of medical research,
integration of methods invariably denotes treating the
qualitative study as if it were a quantitative one, recording
the material as variables, which are counted and
aggregated. Healthy and innovative meta-analysis should
develop methods for reasonable combination of findings
from qualitative and quantitative studies, acknowledging
and using the potential of the different nature of these
approaches. Interpretation of textual materials and
purposeful samples is different to the calculation of
numerical materials and random samples. Findings from
qualitative and quantitative studies can certainly be
aggregated and complemented by secondary analysis,
contributing to an extended approach to the phenomenon
in question, as well as a mutual validation. However, such
meta-analysis should be done on the results, and not by
accumulating and mixing quantitative and qualitative data,
which require fundamentally different procedures for
scientific analysis. When combining qualitative and
quantitative studies, the meta-analyst should be prepared to
handle contradictory findings, without having to discard
one and appoint the other as the gold standard.
Conclusions
Medical research needs diversity. We need to prevent
methodological separatism and supremacy if the field of
medical knowledge is to be expanded, not just strengthened
or divided. Responsible application of qualitative research
methods is a promising approach to broader understanding
of clinical realities. No research method will ever be able to
describe peoples lives, minds, and realities completely
though, and medical doctors should be reminded that
scientific knowledge is not always the most important or
relevant type of information when dealing with people.
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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH SERIES
488 THE LANCET Vol 358 August 11, 2001
Uses of error: Surprises in diagnosis
Working through the night back in the mid-1960s, I was trying to break what we
thought was a lupus flare in a Hispanic woman who had entered the hospital 2 weeks
before with fever of unknown origin. She had been worked up for various bacterial
and viral diseases with the usual chest radiograph, blood, urine, and cerebrospinal
fluid microscopy and cultures. No infectious agent was found. The leading diagnosis
was a flare-up from her lupus erythematosus. High doses of steroid were given and
although her fever subsided she still had weakness and signs of her autoimmune
disease during her course at the hospital. That night she was especially compromised
with difficulty in breathing and high fever. Despite high steroid doses and close
attention by the staff, she died.
As a group, the house staff was not satisfied with the diagnosis of lupus
erythematosus on the death certificate. We thought some other process must have
taken place, but that we had ruled out all the obvious possible causes. She had a
slightly enlarged liver and spleen, again believed secondary to her autoimmune
disease. We were able to do a liver biopsy in an attempt to uncover some unexpected
disease.
As often happens, she died on a Friday and we had the weekend to wait in
anticipation. Finally, the pathology report came back: Mycobacterium tuberculosis
throughout the liver. The surprise of this obvious diagnosis was a lesson to us all. Of
course, with high-dose steroids, tuberculosis should have been high on our list, but
she had not given us any indication of tuberculosis. Her lungs had been clear on
admission, and the tuberculin test was negative, probably secondary to her steroid
dose.
As a lesson in medicine, she was presented at our weekly clinical pathological
conference in which surprises in diagnosis were routinely considered. We had all
learned in medical school about the reactivation of mycobacterial infection during
immunosuppression, but engrossed in treating one disease, we failed to consider
what we knew. This patient was entitled to more than one diagnosis and miliary
tuberculosis, to which she most probably succumbed, could have been approached
with appropriate therapy.
Jay A Levy
Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143-1270, USA
Copyright 2001 All Rights Reserved